Getting Started Guide

This guide has 2 parts.

Part I shows how to add products to your VendingBox.

Part II shows how to add your VendingBox to Facebook (below).

For details on how to add VendingBox to your blog, see this article.

Quick guide I - Adding products.

So let's configure your first VendingBox and add some products.

On the left menu menu you will see the sections of details to be updated in order to make you store work…

These are:

- Preview (for editing color schemes & appearance, branding)

- Configuration (currency, units and many other very useful setup features)

- Manage Products (edit all aspects of how products appear)

- Tax & Shipping details (comprehensive options available for your tax & shipping)

- Terms and conditions (for your customers)

- Information window (initial optional info box upon opening of the store - include contact details here.

- Your Payment details (your paypal email so you can be paid)

Each required component has a small icon that is Green, Orange or Red, signifying it’s configuration status. Once all red icons are made green, this means you have completed basic configuration and are ready to go!

Red = Requires information from you.
Orange = Optional, but is set as default setting.
Green = Information is input and configuration is set.

The first task is to set your currency and weight units.

Click on “Configuration” and choose these from the dropdown menus as appropriate. Tip: Tootip help bubbles are available beside most choices to provide you with further information. Click on these and they will present more information to you, and will then disappear so you can go back to your task just as you left it.

Next, click on “Manage Products”. This is where you will “Add Products” to your shop.

Your current product list appears, now showing the example item.

Let's add another item. On the right you will see two tick boxes. “Activate” and “Delete”. We will use these later.

Click on “Add Product” in the submenu.

Fill in the fields “Title”, “Price” and click on “browse” to upload an image of your product. Enter some description details about your product in the dialogue box at the bottom – this will appear alongside your product on the Shopfront. All other fields can be considered later, but for now, this is sufficient.

You will then see a dialogue letting you know that the addition of the item to your product list was successful.

This product will now appear in the product list. Tick the “Delete” tickbox of the example product and click the “Activate” box of your new product.

Only your new product will now be ‘active’ in your VendingBox store.
Click on "Preview" to check how it looks...

Don't forget to remove the example product from your store!

Quick guide II - Add VendingBox to Facebook

Choose "Preview" and the "Add to my site" tab, as shown here.

This tells Facebook that you want to install the VendingBox onto one of your pages.

Select the page from the list Facebook shows, and your VendingBox will now be installed on that page.

Our blog contains many hints and tips on how to make the most of your VendingBox.

See it here.

Cart Integration

How to quickly import all of your webcart products into your VendingBox.

1. Log into your VendingBox account and choose “Configuration”.
   On the page top-tab click the “Cart Integration”.
   
   

2. At the bottom of these settings you will see “Download Feed Plugin”.

3. Choose the ecommerce system you have, i.e. osCommerce, Zen Cart, Magento or CREoaded.

4. Choose the appropriate plugin and click “Download”.

5. Save this compressed zip file to your computer and extract the contents.

6. Copy the plugin file vendingbox_feed.php to the location specified in the instruction text file. In most cases the location is the main catalog directory of your eCommerce installation.
   
   
7. Under the field titled “Store Plugin URL”, enter the exact location of the feed file you just added to your catalogue directory. If your store is located at http://mystore.com/catalog/ then the URL of your feed will be http://mystore.com/catalog/vendingbox_feed.php

8. Click on “Import all settings”. Our system will make a secure call to your cart to import your products.

9. Choose “Manage Products”, on the left menu, and click "Product List". All of you catalog will be listed.
   NOTE: If images and products do not immediately display on your Preview screen, please allow some time for them to be indexed on our server.
   
   
10. Select all or some of the imported products you wish to display in your VendingBox. Use the appropriate tickboxes to activate/delete displayed products. Display as many products per sheet as you like by clicking the numbers at the top right - which makes batch activations easier.
    
    If you have many products in your list, you can use the search function to find items and whole categories quickly. You can also edit product details and view sharable individual product pages.

10. Lastly, at the bottom of a given list you must click “APPLY CHANGES”. Your products will now be displayed in your VendingBox.

If your products do not list or you have a specific configuration that may be stopping the import, please do not hesitate to contact us at support@vendingbox.net. Please detail if you are using add-ons, and give us the details of the cart versions you are using.

Now that you have products to sell in your Vendingbox, why not add to your Facebook Page?
Simply go to: Preview... Add to my site (tab)... Install Application.